Smithsonian Folkways
Alberta: Wild Roses, Northern Lights
collects 19 tracks from one of Canada's most mountainous provinces. These are not scratchy recordings of trappers and Cree horseman captured over a campfire in the early 1900s, rather the songs on
Alberta
have feet firmly planted in the present. Recognizable Alberta natives like
k.d. lang
, whose
"Big-Boned Girl"
from 2006's
Reintarnation
gets the remix treatment, and
Ian Tyson
are sequenced alongside newcomers like the
Swiftys
and the
Corb Lund Band
. Highlights include the sweeping
Celtic folk
of the
McDades
'
"Jonny's Flush/The Boiling Hen,"
the northern
bluegrass
of
Maria Dunn
's
"Do You Know Slim Evans?,"
the
Kubasonics
boot-stomping Ukrainian throwdown
"Polka from l'Viv,"
and the snowy
country
sounds of
Tim Hus
(
"Alberta Crude"
) and the aforementioned
"Sweet Rose"
). ~ James Christopher Monger